The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1887-04-15

WHO PRINTS THEM AND now IT is DONE.

WHO PRINTS THEM AND now IT IS DONE.
The printing of postal cards for the
United States government has become
an industry Of considerable magnitude
and wonderful improvements have been
made in the machinery for producing
the millions of postal cards that are
consumed every year. We copy from
an exchange the full particulars of the
methods now in vogue in producing
these cards, giving the process from
the rags TO the finished card In a
pretty ravine back of the hill on which
Castleton, N. Y, stands, ten miles be-
low Albany, there is cluster Of brick
buildings, a tall smokestack, and a
little brook that takes seventy foot
tumble over the rocks. Up on the side
of the hill, in the highest building,
hundreds of tons of rags and paper
pulp start at the bottom come out all
the postal cards and registered letter
receipts used in the United States,
boxed up for shipment. The larger
buildings are the paper mills of the
Fort Orange Paper Company, of which
G. 9. Woolworth, who lives in Secre.
tary Manning's old house in Albany, is
President and Treasurer. He has the
contract for makirg all the postal cards
the Government wants at 47.7l cents
a thousand. Last year almost 4OO,-
100000 were used, and the price was,
5443 cents a thousand. This year
they begin new contract, aud the
company expects to make close to half
billion cards under it. The mill has
the usual paper-making machinery,
with a capacity of SIX tons a day.
There are three washing engines, four
besters, and two sets Of rolling ma
chinery. One is used to make postal
card paper, aud the other to do book
work or any other of the finer grades
of paper making. From four to six
tons of rags and lot of paper pulp are
consumed every day. 1t is an odd
thing that a large proportion of the
rags comes from ex-Alderman McQuade
and the people of the United States
every time they buy postal card are
indirect customers of the ex-Alderman.
At the paper mill they give McQuade a
high character for furnishing good rags
and for keeping his contracts. If the
jury that tried him had been made up
from people in the mill he would not
have been convicted. The postal cards
are made almost entirely from rags,
though occasionally percentage OF
wood pulp is introduced. When the
paper has been calendered it is taken
from the paper mill few feet to the
postal card factory. In the big room
of the postal card factory are dozen
men, two dozen girls, large Campbell
press, four small cutters aud one large
cutter, stacks of boxes, large tables and
web of gearing and belts overhead.
The sheets are taken to the press,
where two feeders feed forty. four
sheets a miuute-l,760 postal cards
every sixty seconds. The postal cards
are printed from steel plates 80 hard
that there is not file in the factory
that will make an impression on them.
Each card has separate steel plate,
and the eighty that are needed to make
impressions on the two sheets are
wedged in the bed Of the press. The
plates come from Washington, and last
two years without renewal. When the
company took tile contract at q re.
duced rate they had in mind several
new inventions, the most important OF
which Mr.. w. H. Buuce has been work.
ing over for four years. Mr.. Bunce il
connected with the firm of Woolworth
81 Graham, who have the postal card
contract. Two of his machines are in
operation in an inner room under the
charge of Frank Shephardson. They
print from the roll. and turn out the
postal cards pasted in packages OF
twenty-five The machine does it all
1t prints the cards in the usual way Of
a rotary press 800 to the minute. A
set of knives cuts the cards off, and
they drop out of the press four abreast
in little cells prepared for them. When
twenty-five have dropped out set Of
steel fingers turn the package over,
twines paper band about it and pastes
the band together, after pair of knives
have clipped off enough band to &c
around a package. A band covered
with cloth buckets pi ,ks up the pack.
ages and takes them out into the main
room, where the girls pack them in
boxes ready for delivery. An addition
to the machine is contemplated which
will do its own packing. There are
two OF these machines, and one mar
can look after them both. He doesn',
need to touch them except to put on 6
roll of paper. They cost 81 POO bu,
new ones can be made for half the
price. Another invention which they
control is a box machine, which dis
penses with the separate glue pad and
knife OF the old style machine. The
only man needed is a man to fee6
pasteboard. The machine cuts it, glue,
it, and turns out finished box at thu
rate of 1000 day. An addition tc
this machine is being made that will
make boxes from roll of pasteboard
as newspapers are made from roll OF
paper. When all these inventions ar,
in full working order it will not taxi
more than half a dozen men to lool
after them, and the only other labol
needed will be the clerks who address
the boxes and packages. There will b.
good profit in making postal card
then, though the price has fallen from
239 3-S cents thousand to SAB las
year and All now. The chief cos
is the paper, which is worth about ,
quarter more than newspaper. Th'
rags to start with cost 2 to 4 cents
pound. The postal card sells to thu
Government for about cents pound
All the rest is paid 10 workmen aDC
girls or goes as profit. Twenty-eigh
girls and thirteen men, at an average
pay of Sl,50 10 81 day, make all th,
postal cards. John ODonnell, tn,